U of California Review Backs Use Of Pepper Spray On Protesters

A new review of police actions at UC Berkeley on Nov. 9 has some protesters calling it "a tactical handbook for warfare against students," while the author himself acknowledges his findings are controversial.

Notably, campus police should have been allowed to use pepper spray against student protesters, said Jeff Young, the UCLA assistant police chief who was asked to review UC Berkeley police actions that day.

"Some of these findings will be controversial," Young wrote in his 50-page report to Mitch Celaya, the UC Berkeley police chief. "This is unavoidable."

Young's report is the first of two public reviews of UC Berkeley police conduct at the Occupy Cal protest Nov. 9. YouTube viewers got a close-up view of police using batons to whack students who had linked arms to try to prevent the riot-geared officers from dismantling tents they had erected on campus.